


elemental

by dragonsinparis



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-07
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2017-11-09 09:45:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsinparis/pseuds/dragonsinparis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a ficathon, ages ago. Prompt: Cindy/Max, "the ground trembles beneath her feet."</p>
            </blockquote>





	elemental

She remembers the silence of her youth as heavy, hot and humid - not unbearable, but never comfortable. She was a quiet child, then a quiet teen. Even when she ran north, wrapped herself up in how different Seattle was, the heat lingered. It wasn’t until Diamond came, pulled all the interconnected flakes of her out into the clear air like an endless chain of colored handkerchiefs, that Cindy ever bothered to notice how easy breathing was. She pulled the world into her lungs and let it out as more than air, as if no pollutants could climb through the filter of a kiss.

But Diamond came and Diamond went (as such gems were never meant to do) and miraculously the air was still clear, she was still Cindy, made up of all the parts that had waited under the sweat from so long ago.

When Normal hires the girl with the far-back look in her eyes and the mop of wavy dark hair, Cindy notices her - how could she not? - but doesn’t speak to her for days; there’s no real reason to. The girl is quiet in a way she herself has forgotten how to be, and bears invisible claws in the shadows that lie so gently across her too-full cheeks. Cindy only sees the spaces between them, where this girl’s guide came and left too early. She hesitates under the heat, but only for a moment; no element but air could ever hold her back. The ground trembles beneath her feet as she moves forward, dancing in anticipation of its own road. Her target is beautiful, there’s no denying that, but somehow that feels merely incidental. “Hey homegirl, if you’re free tonight, Original Cindy knows a good place to kick it.”

Sketchy is over her shoulder, pulled along by her effortless courage. He’s had three whole days to ask the new girl out but somehow he feels like he was deprived of his chance. “Aw, man, Cindy, it’s not fai - ” She grabs his nose (it’s hard to miss) and twists enough to let him know who’s boss, her eyes never leaving the girl on the bench.

The girl smiles, and even though Cindy can tell she's out of practice the air gets light and cool again. “I’d like that.”


End file.
